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Monday, June 11, 2012

Found Michigan has a really interesting interview with Northern Michigan University's Dr. Martin Reinhardt, a professor of Native American Studies and Anishinaabe Ojibway citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Marty is conducting a study investigating the relationship between humans and regional native foods. For the Decolonizing Diet Project, as they are calling it, he and 15 volunteers will be eating only foods that were found in the Great Lakes Region prior to 1600. What does that entail exactly? Well, corn, wild sweet potatoes, lots of wild rice, wild game and a little white pine bark from time to time. From the interview:

Found Michigan: It’s kind of amazing you can get so much from one plant that we don’t think of as edible. But what about the failures—anything from the diet you’ve tried so far that you wouldn’t eat again?

Marty: Well, for the most part, boiled white pine bark—it wasn’t bad. I could see it mixed with soup and stuff. It’s a bit stringy and woody—as it should be, obviously, it’s a tree. But probably it wouldn’t be the first thing on my menu if I had other choices.

If this sounds like the sort of thing you might be into, the Decolonizing Diet Project currently has 3 volunteer vacancies. The deadline to apply is June 15th, so act fast!